Is this electrical bill fair?

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#730709 11-Dec-2012 18:17

Gooseybhai:
johnr:
wellygary: If you know the guy the owns the company, just ring him and as him to explain the bill to you,

More fun starting a thread on Geekzone and wasting our time

:-)

One would assume one normally gets at least a rough idea about the price before approving any work to commence.
If you do the maths at 50$ an hour you will rack up 700$ in 14 hours. I know sparkys that charge way more than 50$ an hour.

Sparkies are made of gold and charge GOLD !

Imaging working with a highly dangerous invisible force that can kill you instantly! that's why they charge gold

timmmay

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#730721 11-Dec-2012 18:27

johnr:
wellygary: If you know the guy the owns the company, just ring him and as him to explain the bill to you,

More fun starting a thread on Geekzone and wasting our time

You're a bit sour today. If you have nothing constructive to add please don't comment on the thread.

I posted a very reasonable question about is this bill reasonable, given it's not broken down. I don't want to question my neighbor if it's not necessary, we have a good neighborly relationship and I want to keep it that way. Under NZ law if no quote is supplied it must be reasonable and comparable with other people doing similar work. I'm trying to establish if it's reasonable.

johnr

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#730726 11-Dec-2012 18:32

timmmay:
johnr:
wellygary: If you know the guy the owns the company, just ring him and as him to explain the bill to you,

More fun starting a thread on Geekzone and wasting our time

You're a bit sour today. If you have nothing constructive to add please don't comment on the thread.

I posted a very reasonable question about is this bill reasonable, given it's not broken down. I don't want to question my neighbor if it's not necessary, we have a good neighborly relationship and I want to keep it that way. Under NZ law if no quote is supplied it must be reasonable and comparable with other people doing similar work. I'm trying to establish if it's reasonable.

They gave you a $1065 invoice for work they did, You have every right to question them neighbor or not. They could answer this question better than anyone else here on Geekzone as they did the work!

Goosey

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#730738 11-Dec-2012 18:43

Right time to close this!

Ideally you needed to get your quotes prior to authorising the work before trying to ascertain if the above invoice was reasonable.

Your only option here is to talk to the company and understand your invoice and take up your points with them. (even though it's your neibours business its up to you how you want to play this and to what level).

It sounds like to us (from the information you have supplied) that you didn't get any quotes from other companies or tried to obtain an estimate from the company you approach to complete the work.

Just my thoughts.

Satch

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#731298 12-Dec-2012 12:23

johnr:
wellygary: If you know the guy the owns the company, just ring him and as him to explain the bill to you,

More fun starting a thread on Geekzone and wasting our time

No, you waste your own time by reading this and replying.

Satch

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#731301 12-Dec-2012 12:25

Johnk:That $10 travel is amazingly good! Would be alot more through most other companies.

Travel time cracks me up. I'd love to be able to charge my employer "travel time" to and from the office every day...

timmmay

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#731303 12-Dec-2012 12:26

I just paid it and didn't say anything.

I consider travel time a reasonable charge, and $10 was super cheap. They need to buy and run vehicles, keep stock of parts, and it takes time to drive to the job.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

Satch

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#731319 12-Dec-2012 12:46

timmmay: I consider travel time a reasonable charge, and $10 was super cheap. They need to buy and run vehicles, keep stock of parts, and it takes time to drive to the job.

I don't see how that differs from anyone else who drives to work and takes time to do so (such as me driving to the office each day - I have a vehicle to run and maintain, and it takes me time to drive to and from work). On top of that, I have recently finished renovating my house where I've had tilers, builders, painters, bathroom renovators, and kitchen renovators doing work. None of them charged travel time. Is it only sparkys who charge this fee?

"Keep stock of parts" doesn't make any sense when it comes to "travel time".

dickytim

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#731340 12-Dec-2012 13:02

Travel time is time for them to bring their workplace to you, their workplace is the van.

$10 is way cheap, at $70 per hour + the cost of running the van he must have been a couple of houses down the road!

I would have asked how long the electrician was on site, and if any of the charges were for re-work, it really is unacceptable to charge for re-work of an error, however sometimes professionals will add these on to their time sheets and see if it gets paid, I find this with (some) programmers.

As suggested earlier I would ask about this, as for the parts, I know how much it costs us for cable but we import it ourselves, but there are some variables like what the cross section needed to be, and if they needed to replace more cable on the job than running a few extra lengths.

Sometimes there are fixed costs that get charged out for sundries, things like cable ties etc that get charged regardless of the job.

Lastly, and I am not saying that this is the case here but some tradesmen inflate the hours when working with customer supplied goods as supplying the parts they get a margin from that as well.

timmmay

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#731346 12-Dec-2012 13:07

Too late now. I could ask for a breakdown but it seems pretty pointless.

robjg63

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#731350 12-Dec-2012 13:09

Satch:
I don't see how that differs from anyone else who drives to work and takes time to do so (such as me driving to the office each day - I have a vehicle to run and maintain, and it takes me time to drive to and from work). On top of that, I have recently finished renovating my house where I've had tilers, builders, painters, bathroom renovators, and kitchen renovators doing work. None of them charged travel time. Is it only sparkys who charge this fee?

"Keep stock of parts" doesn't make any sense when it comes to "travel time".

Your travel time is once a day. Potentially for small jobs they could travel several times in a day and waste a few hours a day in traffic. So the travel time could be longer than the actual work on site.

If you have contractors in for days at a time then I dont think its really reasonable to charge travel time. As you say (and in this case I would agree with you) everyone has to travel to work.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

Satch

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#731359 12-Dec-2012 13:17

robjg63: Your travel time is once a day. Potentially for small jobs they could travel several times in a day and waste a few hours a day in traffic. So the travel time could be longer than the actual work on site.

If you have contractors in for days at a time then I dont think its really reasonable to charge travel time. As you say (and in this case I would agree with you) everyone has to travel to work.

My response would be don't become an electrician then as this is just part of the job. It wouldn't be so bad if it was built into the hourly rate, but to be itemised separately and brought to attention is a little on the nose from my perspective. It kinda reminds me of credit card surcharges....

robjg63

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#731368 12-Dec-2012 13:26

Satch:
robjg63: Your travel time is once a day. Potentially for small jobs they could travel several times in a day and waste a few hours a day in traffic. So the travel time could be longer than the actual work on site.

If you have contractors in for days at a time then I dont think its really reasonable to charge travel time. As you say (and in this case I would agree with you) everyone has to travel to work.

My response would be don't become an electrician then as this is just part of the job. It wouldn't be so bad if it was built into the hourly rate, but to be itemised separately and brought to attention is a little on the nose from my perspective. It kinda reminds me of credit card surcharges....

Everything costs and you will pay one way or another.

I believe we have the commerce commission to thank for the credit card surcharges. It used to be illegal to charge extra for a credit card transaction. The credit card companies of course took a cut and the vendor (and I suppose the odd person who paid cash) would subsidise the credit card transaction. Anyway - you saw a price and thats what you paid.

The commerce commision decided that if the credit card companies fees were able to be charged for then they would all start reducing their fees and the consumer would get reduced fees. Of course the credit card companies didnt blink at all and their fees never dropped, and the retailers all want to recover the transaction fee - but now we get teased by the price of an item then whacked with the CC transaction fee.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

mattwnz

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#731373 12-Dec-2012 13:31

robjg63:
I believe we have the commerce commission to thank for the credit card surcharges. It used to be illegal to charge extra for a credit card transaction. The credit card companies of course took a cut and the vendor (and I suppose the odd person who paid cash) would subsidise the credit card transaction. Anyway - you saw a price and thats what you paid.

Did it used to be illegal? I thought it was previously against credit card companies terms for their vendors to add fees as extra onto the price. But the comcom instead made it possible for companies to add on the credit card fees?

NonprayingMantis

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#731375 12-Dec-2012 13:31

to go back to the OP, the total price certianly seems ballpark correct to me based on other work I have had done in the past.

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